ITALICS is the first consortium in Italy to bring together over sixty of the most authoritative galleries of ancient, modern and contemporary art throughout Italy. From Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 September 2022 in Monopoli (Bari), it is presenting the second edition of the city-wide exhibition “Panorama”, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis, Curator and Associate Director of Programs, Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, recently appointed as Director, Fairs and Exhibition Platforms of Art Basel.
“Panorama”, the special story that ITALICS dedicates periodically to some of the most extraordinary places in the Italian landscape, launched its first edition last year on the wonderful island of Procida, offering a new itinerary of ancient and contemporary art and architecture, accompanied by a schedule of informative side events, performances and special projects open to the public.
The exhibition itinerary encompasses the ancient historic center of the Adriatic town and entails twenty exhibition venues, including palaces, churches, piazzas, votive aedicules hidden in alleyways and lanes. It will host 70 works ranging from the 15th-century to today and includes 7 performance pieces, created by 60 international artists of different nationalities and from different eras and generations: Mario Airò (Pavia, Italy, 1961), Francesco Arena (Torre Santa Susanna, Brindisi, Italy, 1978), Stefano Arienti (Asola, Mantua, Italy, 1961), Gianfranco Baruchello (Livorno, Italy, 1924), Luca Bertolo (Milan, Italy, 1968), Paolo Bini (Battipaglia, Salerno, Italy, 1984), Alighiero Boetti (Turin, Italy, 1940 – Rome, Italy, 1994), Pier Paolo Calzolari (Bologna, Italy, 1943), Duilio Cambellotti (Roma, Italia, 1876 – 1960), Mariana Castillo Deball (Mexico City, Mexico, 1975), Adelaide Cioni (Bologna, Italy, 1976), Pietro Consagra (Mazara del Vallo, Trapani, 1920 – Milan, Italy, 2005), Maria Adele Del Vecchio (Caserta, Italy, 1976), Gaia Di Lorenzo (Rome, Italy, 1991), Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg (Lysekil, Sweden, 1978 / Rättvik, Sweden, 1978), Mimosa Echard (Alès, France, 1986), Sam Falls (San Diego, CA, United States, 1984), Matteo Fato (Pescara, Italy, 1979), Cesare Fracanzano (Bisceglie, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Italy, 1605 – Barletta, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Italia, 1651), Massimo Grimaldi (Taranto, Italy, 1974), Edi Hila (Shkodra, Albania, 1944), Judith Hopf (Karlsruhe, Germany, 1969), Adelita Husni-Bey (Milan, Italy, 1985), Alfredo Jaar (Santiago del Chile, Chile, 1956), Ann Veronica Janssens (Folkestone, United Kingdom, 1956), Runo Lagomarsino (Lund, Sweden, 1977), Giovanni Lanfranco (Parma, Italy, 1582 – Rome, Italy, 1647), Francesco Laurana e Nicola Samorì (Vrana, Croatia, 1430 – Avignon, France, 1502 / Forlì, 1977), Jieun Lim (Seoul, South Korea, 1983), Lorenzo Lippi (Florence, Italy, 1606 – 1665), Carlo Manieri (Taranto, Italy, 1633 – Rome, Italy, 1702), Franca Maranò (Bari, Italy, 1920 – Bari, Italy, 2015), Richard Marquis & Johanna Nitzke Marquis (Bumble Bee, AZ, United States, 1945 / Northern Wisconsin, WI, United States, 1947), Mario Merz (Milan, Italy, 1925 – 2003), Marisa Merz (Turin, Italy, 1926 – 2019), Luzie Meyer (Tübingen, Germany, 1990), Diego Miguel Mirabella (Enna, Italy, 1988), François Morellet (Cholet, France, 1926 – 2016), Valerio Nicolai (Gorizia, Italy, 1988), Alessandro Piangiamore (Enna, Italy, 1976), Michelangelo Pistoletto (Biella, Italy, 1933), Gianni Politi (Rome, Italy,1986), Nathlie Provosty (Cincinnati, OH, United States, 1981), Giangiacomo Rossetti (Milan, Italy, 1989), Medardo Rosso (Turin, Italy, 1858 – Milan, Italy, 1928), Mimmo Rotella (Catanzaro, Italy, 1918 – Milan, Italy, 2006), Antonio Sanfilippo (Partanna, Trapani, Italy, 1923 – Rome, Italy, 1980), Alberto Savinio (Athens, Greece, 1891 – Rome, Italy, 1952), Aviva Silverman (New York, NY, United States, 1986), Carl-August-Wilhelm Sommer (Coburgo, Germany, 1839 – 1921), Eugenio Tibaldi (Alba, Cuneo, Italy, 1977), Patrick Tuttofuoco (Milan, Italy, 1974), Massimo Vitali (Como, Italy, 1944), Luca Vitone (Genoa, Italy, 1964), Stanley Whitney (Philadelphia, PA, United States, 1946), Antonio Zanchi (Padua, Italy, 1631 – Venice, Italy, 1722).
Like the the previous edition, which celebrated the career of Daniel Buren and his great bond with the island of Procida, this year too, on the occasion of “Panorama Monopoli”, ITALICS is celebrating a fundamental artist for the territory, by awarding the Italics d’Oro in memory of the exemplary artistic and life experience of the photographer Lisetta Carmi (Genoa, 1924).
The work of Lisetta Carmi will be featured in a special project developed in collaboration with the international festival of photography and art PhEST – See Beyond the Sea. On exhibit will be unpublished shots taken in 1960 between Puglia and Basilicata, that will be remain open to the public for the duration of the festival, from 9 September until 1 November 2022.
The project “Panorama Monopoli” is conceived as a vast choral event inspired by the Greek concept of xenia. Each of the selected works will make a contribution by offering multiple interpretations of universal themes that, from the 15th century to today, have been drivers of creativity for artists from different eras, and have engaged human minds for about seven centuries.
For the Greeks, the term xenia summed up the meaning of hospitality and the relationship with the foreigner, governed by basic rules of behavior, such as the custom of paying homage to the guest with a “farewell gift” to testify that he had enjoyed his visit. In a sense, xenia is a form of ritualized friendship based on reciprocity.
The concept is related to that of the foreigner, from xenos, and the history of Monopoli, similar to many other cities on the Adriatic coast, crossroads of exchanges, interests, peoples and trade. The Egnatini (from the Messapian center of nearby Egnatia), the Byzantines, Bretons, Arabs, Spaniards, and Venetians all contributed in various ways to making the city’s culture a true polychrome mosaic but, at the same time, these menacing presences compelled it to become a powerful fortress watching over the sea.
The curator Vincenzo de Bellis explains: “If we transfer these concepts to today, we can see how our relationship with others has changed. We repudiate the stranger, without realizing that in contemporary society we are all strangers to one another. Our era has completely distorted the meanings of nearness and distance. It has transformed distance into a motive for fear and exclusion, or reduced it to zero in a closeness that is only virtual, experienced and mediated by a screen. So news reaches us but it does not concern us. It doesn’t feel vivid, and yet it’s close, because everything is close today.
The year 2022 has been devastated by a global pandemic and a war, the one in Ukraine, which reminds us of the many other wars that are ongoing, only quieter now due to the outbreak of yet another. This is a year when mass migrations between the various world borders have not ceased, and because of our position overlooking the Mediterranean, we see them coming mainly from the East, the Middle East and North Africa, “Panorama Monopoli” cannot and must not be a political exhibition in the most immediate sense of the term. Many of the artists exhibited make no mention of today’s news, and it could not be otherwise when bringing together works ranging from the 15th century to today. The selection focuses on universal themes that inspire a wide variety of interpretations, sometimes unexpected, especially where works and artists from different eras and backgrounds interact with one another during the exhibition.”
“Panorama Monopoli” once again promises to be a unique exhibition experience. An exhibition designed as the emanation of ITALICS, designed to bring together ancient, modern and contemporary styles, techniques and multiple thoughts in art itineraries that will take the viewer to discover the most authentic and little-known aspects of our country, a live continuation of the extraordinary journey that began in 2020 on the web pages of the Italics.art platform.
The associated galleries adamantly agreed on the Panorama format, formally declaring their commitment, with a view to collaborating with the local energies in the territories involved. Its themes will be expanded with a program and alliances aimed at reaffirming the central role of Italian art galleries in a cultural, local and global system that is quickly evolving.
“Panorama Monopoli” is realized with the patronage of the UNESCO, the Ministry of Culture, the support of the Department of Tourism, Economy of Culture and Valorization of the Territory of the Puglia Region and the Departments of Culture and Tourism of the Municipality of Monopoli.
Belmond Ltd. is joining ITALICS as main partner to support the Consortium activities and “Panorama Monopoli”. Developing its long and successful hospitality and leisure tradition, Belmond has always devoted attention and care to the heritage and history of the Countries where it operates. The partnership with ITALICS will aim to the common objective of promoting Italy and its territory through art, inviting the public to see the culture and beauty spread throughout the country with a different point of view.
After having supported the first edition in Procida in 2021, Tod’s confirms its support as Partner of the second edition of “Panorama”.
Tod’s chooses to continue along the path already begun with the desire to give continuity to the cultural projects of Consorzio ITALICS with which it shares an interest in the enhancement of the Italian territory and the important cultural work expressed by the over 60 art galleries involved in the project.
“Panorama Monopoli” public programme is organized in collaboration with Treccani Arte.
Il Giornale dell’Arte is the media partner of “Panorama Monopoli”.
“Panorama Monopoli” is produced with the special participation of Liceo Artistico Luigi Russo; thanks to all students, the teachers and the Director Adolfo Marciano for their contribution to the cultural event.
THE EXHIBITION ITINERARY
The ancient seaside village of Monopoli is located at the heart of the Apulian coast along the “Costa dei Trulli”, and preserves centuries-old layers of the history of human civilization. The historic center, of medieval origins, is a maze of pedestrian streets, typical lanes, narrow passageways, and ancient piazzas, wonderful popular housing interspersed with sumptuous religious buildings and splendid aristocratic homes. It is in these very streets that the second edition of the city-wide “Panorama” exhibition is taking place. It includes about 70 works by 60 artists distributed along an itinerary consisting of 20 exhibition spaces. Seven performance pieces will bring to life the places chosen for the action, the local community or, in turn, other works exhibited in the same setting.
The itinerary is planned to harmoniously work with the architecture and natural landscape, inviting viewers to lose themselves in the formal solutions and different themes. The stagings encourage multiple dialogues between artists of different generations or eras, alternating with monographic presentations dedicated to contemporary artists.
The exhibition itinerary takes in the main churches of the village, such as the Church and former monastery of Santi Giuseppe e Anna, with its wonderful majolica floor. It will host one of the many dialogues between different eras of art history that will intersect along the route; the nerve centers in the urban fabric, such as Piazza Palmieri, will host a staged performance. Piazzetta Santa Maria and Largo Castello, and the more intimate spaces of the Cloisters, alleys, gates and votive aedicules in the lanes of the historic center will house site-specific installations.
Palazzo Martinelli, the San Leonardo Complex, the stables of Casa Santa and the Sala delle Armi of Castello Carlo V will house the four main exhibition centers.
The exhibition in the 18th-century Palazzo Martinelli which rises near the walls with its scenic loggia and ogival arches, will be held in six rooms, each presenting a surprising dialogue between chronologically and culturally distant artists.
The Complex of San Leonardo, a former 16th-century monastery of Benedictine nuns, made into a school following the Unification of Italy then left unused, will host the presentation of works by contemporary artists, divided into ten spaces with nine monographs and a site-specific project in progress that will be completed on the opening days of “Panorama Monopoli”.
The stables attached to the Casa Santa, the former convent of the Discalced Carmelites built at the end of the 16th century and later a shelter for young orphans and the needy, will house the works of six artists spread over three environments.
The Castello Carlo V, a pentagonal fortification that stands on a strip of land that is closer to the sea than the rest of the city, in its Sala delle Armi, among large iron anchors, 19th-century cannons and important archaeological finds, will host the works of five contemporary artists, including new creations conceived specifically for the occasion and in response to the venue that is hosting them. Again, within the walls of the Castle of Monopoli, a very special dialogue will be set up between an ancient painting and a contemporary sculpture, cyclically activated by a performance.
In the full Italics spirit of offering authentic experiences to discover the traditions and soul of the land that is hosting the city-wide exhibition, a symbolic act will kick off Panorama Monopoli: participation in an ages-old event, held every year at Cala di Porta Vecchia.
At dawn on September 1st, in Cala di Porta Vecchia, a traditional ritual takes place, widespread among the inhabitants of some municipalities of the Costa dei Trulli and the Itria Valley and considered a good omen. In fact, they believe that swimming in the sea at dawn on September 1st ensures good health throughout the winter. On the occasion of such a special moment for Monopoli, in a ritual and symbolic collective plunge into the sea, Massimo Vitali will take a series of shots as part of his photography project on beaches.
THE ITALICS D’ORO IN MEMORY OF LISETTA CARMI
THE COLLABORATION WITH PHEST – See Beyond the Sea
ITALICS is delighted to announce that the Italics d’Oro award of the 2022 edition of “Panorama” is celebrating the seminal artistic experience and work of Lisetta Carmi, passed away this 5 July at the age of 98 in her home, in Cisternino (Brindisi), Puglia.
Each edition of “Panorama” recognizes and celebrates an artist who has developed an intense relationship with the territory where the city-wide exhibition is held. The first recipient of the Italics d’Oro in 2021 was Daniel Buren, an artist who has had a very special relationship with the island of Procida for over thirty years.
In 1979, the artist and photographer Lisetta Carmi (Genoa, 1924) had chosen to live in Cisternino, Puglia, where her long history with photography began and where, over the years, she founded a meditation community. The Monopoli edition of the Italics d’Oro is being awarded to her memory with the following motivation: “Lisetta Carmi has been a great Italian artist who has distinguished herself with work that is well ahead its time and that is why, even today, she is extremely topical. Her photographs document unrepresented subjects and realities and are some of the first to use an artistic approach in the work of photographic documentation, accentuating the tensions between classes, gender issues, and visions poised between eroticism and power.”
On the occasion of “Panorama Monopoli”, with a view to developing a network of profitable relationships with the most authoritative organizations locally working in the cultural field, ITALICS is delighted to announce the collaboration with PhEST – See Beyond the Sea, international photography and art festival, now in its seventh edition.
To seal the collaboration and twinning between the two initiatives, ITALICS and PhEST are announcing the exhibition of a series of unpublished shots by Lisetta Carmi, taken in 1960 between Puglia and Basilicata and never exhibited before which will be held at Palazzo Palmieri, PhEST headquarters, and visible until the end of the festival.
Not only do the selected images represent the first time the artist, originally from Genoa, came into contact with the territory in which she eventually had chosen to live and work, but they are the very first photographs ever made by the artist.
As Lisetta Carmi herself has had the opportunity to explain, her relationship with photography began in Puglia: “I began taking pictures with a small Agfa Silette camera and no previous knowledge. It was 1960, and I left for Puglia with my ethno-musicologist friend Leo Levi. We went to San Nicandro Garganico, where a group of Jewish students of the mystic and clairvoyant Donato Manduzio lived, in the Jewish catacombs of Venosa, in Alberobello. I used nine rolls to document those beautiful and interesting places. I had never taken a photo in my life.”
Thursday, 1 September 2022
6am–12pm Live Photography
Massimo Vitali, “Cooking Show”
Cala Portavecchia, lungomare Portavecchia
11am-12pm Press conference and curator’s guided tour
Molo Margherita
12–8pm Public Opening Panorama Monopoli
5–5.30 pm Performance
Maria Adele Del Vecchio, “En ce temps-là”, 2020-22
Complesso S. Leonardo (courtyard), via San Leonardo 9
5–8pm One-on-one performative encounters
Adelita Husni-Bey, “Encounters on Pain”, 2016-ongoing
Palazzo di Città, via Giuseppe Garibaldi 12
By appointment only: info@gallerialaveronica.it
Punctuality is required, waiting outside to be called. The maximum duration of the
performance is 20 minutes: 5-5.20pm / 5.30-5.50pm / 6-6.20pm / 6.40-7pm /
7.10-7.30pm / 7.40-8pm
5.30–7.30pm Informal poker tournament
Eugenio Tibaldi, “Cuba Casinò”, 2015
Chiostro Palazzo S. Martino, via San Domenico 18
To participate in the tournament: cubacasino@galleriaumbertodimarino.com
Friday, 2 September 2022
9–10am Public Program
in collaboration with Treccani Arte
meeting point: Porto Antico, 9am
10am–8pm Panorama Monopoli
exhibition venues opening hours
5–5.30pm Performance
Maria Adele Del Vecchio, En ce temps-là, 2020-22
Complesso S. Leonardo (cortile), via San Leonardo 9
5–8pm One-on-one performative encounters
Adelita Husni-Bey, Encounters on Pain, 2016-ongoing
Palazzo di Città, via Giuseppe Garibaldi 12
By appointment only: info@gallerialaveronica.it
Punctuality is required, waiting outside to be called. The maximum duration of the
performance is 20 minutes: 5-5.20pm / 5.30-5.50pm / 6-6.20pm / 6.40-7pm /
7.10-7.30pm / 7.40-8pm
6–8pm Informal poker tournament
Eugenio Tibaldi, Cuba Casinò, 2015
Chiostro Palazzo S. Martino, via San Domenico 18
To participate in the tournament: cubacasino@galleriaumbertodimarino.com
Saturday, 3 September 2022
9–10am Public Program
in collaboration with Treccani Arte
meeting point: Porto Antico, 9am
10am–8pm Panorama Monopoli
exhibition venues opening hours
5–5.30pm Performance
Maria Adele Del Vecchio, En ce temps-là, 2020-22
Complesso S. Leonardo (cortile), via San Leonardo 9
5–8pm One-on-one performative encounters
Adelita Husni-Bey, Encounters on Pain, 2016-ongoing
Palazzo di Città, via Giuseppe Garibaldi 12
By appointment only: info@gallerialaveronica.it
Punctuality is required, waiting outside to be called. The maximum duration of theperformance is 20 minutes: 5-5.20pm / 5.30-5.50pm / 6-6.20pm / 6.40-7pm / 7.10-7.30pm / 7.40-8pm
5.30–7.30pm Informal poker tournament
Eugenio Tibaldi, Cuba Casinò, 2015
Chiostro Palazzo S. Martino, via San Domenico 18
To participate in the tournament: cubacasino@galleriaumbertodimarino.com
6–7pm Performance
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Terzo Paradiso a Monopoli 2022
Largo Palmieri, piazza Palmieri
Saturday, 4 September 2022
9–10am Public Program
in collaboration with Treccani Arte
meeting point: Porto Antico, 9am
10am–8pm Panorama Monopoli
exhibition venues opening hours
5–5.30pm Performance
Maria Adele Del Vecchio, En ce temps-là, 2020-22
Complesso S. Leonardo (cortile), via San Leonardo 9
5–8pm One-on-one performative encounters
Adelita Husni-Bey, Encounters on Pain, 2016-ongoing
Palazzo di Città, via Giuseppe Garibaldi 12
By appointment only: info@gallerialaveronica.it
Punctuality is required, waiting outside to be called. The maximum duration of the performance is 20 minutes: 5-5.20pm / 5.30-5.50pm / 6-6.20pm / 6.40-7pm / 7.10-7.30pm / 7.40-8pm
- 18–20 Informal poker tournament
Eugenio Tibaldi, Cuba Casinò, 2015
Chiostro Palazzo S. Martino, via San Domenico 18
To participate in the tournament: cubacasino@galleriaumbertodimarino.com
INFORMATION
ITALICS Art and Landscape
@italics.art
#PanoramaMonopoli
ITALICS is the first consortium in Italy to bring together over sixty of the main galleries of contemporary, modern and ancient art throughout Italy. It was established in 2020 based on an idea of Lorenzo Fiaschi (GALLERIA CONTINUA) and Pepi Marchetti Franchi (Gagosian).
The aim behind ITALICS is to develop new approaches to the cultural and human encounter between art lovers and others, creating projects that embrace the Italian cultural and landscape heritage in itineraries of art and rediscovery, characterized by a multidisciplinary approach and forming deep relationships with the territory. Around the intuition of recounting Italy and its extraordinary uniqueness through the eyes of the gallerists, a working group was formed. It includes Alfonso Artiaco, Ludovica Barbieri (Massimo De Carlo), Massimo Di Carlo (Galleria dello Scudo), Francesca Kaufmann (kaufmann repetto), Massimo Minini, Franco Noero and Carlo Orsi. Encouraged by the desire to build a widespread national network based on collaboration and sharing experiences, the nine gallerists invited other galleries throughout the Peninsula and its islands to take part in the project, including some of the most established national and international galleries, as well as newer and more experimental realities. Today, ITALICS is an extremely dynamic organism in continuous evolution. In September 2021, the ideas, inspirations and commitment of the Consortium transported to the island of Procida (NA), the Italian Capital of Culture 2022, the first edition, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis, of the island-wide exhibition “Panorama”: the special story that ITALICS dedicates periodically to some of the most extraordinary places in the Italian landscape, building timeless itineraries.
To keep up-to-date with the Consortium’s list of participants and current and future activities, please visit www.italics.art.